JC Guidelines For General Damages 16th Edition Published This Week

• Published date: 08 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Insurance, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Insurance Laws and Products, Personal Injury
• Law Firm: BLM
• Author: Mr Alistair Kinley

The new edition of the JC guidelines was published in hard copy this week and, as expected, makes across-the-board adjustments for RPI inflation to the recommended guidelines for all categories of all personal injuries.

The headlines from this new edition are that:

(i) The RPI adjustment to allow for the period between the new and previous edition is 6.56%

(ii) The pre-Simmons v Castle column (for cases funded by pre-LASPO CFAs) has now been omitted (save that the guideline figures for mesothelioma claims are still on a pre-LASPO basis because the Act was not commenced for those cases)

(iii) There is a new section on damages for sexual and physical abuse, as was recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and

(iv) It offers no clues as to the approach that may be adopted in claims involving whiplash and other injuries.

My observations

There are vanishingly few categories of injury where the adjustment is noticeably different from the RPI figure, albeit that the guideline amounts provided are, of course, rounded as necessary.

The statutory tariff for whiplash injuries (as defined in the Civil Liability Act 2018 and associated regulations) is included in the guidelines. The narrative in the introduction and foreword notes only that how it operates in practice in claims involving a tariff award and another injury will need to be determined by the courts in due course: "It is unclear from the statutory provisions and the regulations quite how the courts are expected to assess general damages in those cases where a claimant suffers both a whiplash injury and a non-whiplash injury ... Again, further guidance will doubtless be provided by the courts in due course."

It is worth noting that the new edition nevertheless provides RPI-adjusted figures for minor neck injuries. These remain relevant in non-motor neck injury claims and for claims from those vulnerable road users who...